Awk-Weird (Ice Knights, #2)(8)
He spun them around a little faster than the beat, needing to move. “Good to know.”
After that, they both kept their mouths shut, which was for the best. Last night had been a fluke occurrence. His tomorrows were already planned right down to the alphabetized books on the shelves in his den, the breakfast he’d been having every day since he was ten, and the woman he was going to end up with—Marti. The woman who had always been there for him no matter what. They’d find their way back to each other. They always did.
“Did you know the garter toss originated in England and France because guests would try to tear off a piece of the bride’s dress for good luck?” Tess asked, her grip on his shoulder a bit tenser than it had been before. “Grooms started flinging part of the bride’s wedding outfit to calm the crowd and stop the wife from having a nervous breakdown at the idea of having her outfit ripped to shreds while she was wearing it.”
“I didn’t.” He mentally shook off the unease that crept in whenever he thought about a possible change in his routine and dug for a wedding factoid of his own. Competitive? Him? Fuck yeah. “Did you know bouquets were originally garlic, herbs, and spices carried by the bride to ward off evil spirits?”
Tess cracked a smile for the first time since she’d gotten a face full of rosebuds. “I’ll add that one to my list.”
The tension seeped out of his shoulders, and even though he didn’t mean to, he drew her in closer and they swayed to the last bars of the song. Moving on to something up-tempo, the DJ called to the crowd to put on their dancing shoes. Yeah, Cole definitely didn’t own any of those and, judging by the way Tess just stood there and looked around at everyone else, she didn’t, either. Finally, her gaze landed back on him.
“Good luck with her, your ex,” Tess said, taking a step back out of his arms. “I hope it all works out.”
Before he could say anything in response, Tess hustled away from him, disappearing into the crowd. Looking down, he spotted a couple of rose petals clinging, against the odds, to his tux lapel. He wasn’t likely to see Tess ever again, but he still slipped the petals into his pocket as he walked off the dance floor, wondering what factoid she would be able to tell him about roses, the origin of the tuxedo, or the stats for the most popular wedding songs. He’d have to figure that information out for himself, though, because she was right. They had gotten weddinged. Really, what were the chances of ever running into Tess again? Zilch. Zero. Nada. And that was a good thing. Really.
So why was he staring at the spot where she’d disappeared instead of over at Marti and her idiot date like he usually would have been? Fuck if he knew. He was a hockey player, not Freud.
Chapter Three
One month later…
If there was anything Tess could count on in life, it was her period coming every twenty-eight days like a perfectly engineered clock made of cramps and Almond Joy cravings. Today was day twenty-nine, according to her tracking app, and she was sitting on the edge of the tub in her tiny bathroom not breathing and watching four home pregnancy tests lined up on the counter next to the sink while her kitten, Kahn, weaved around and in between her calves.
Were four tests overkill for what would no doubt be a negative result? Probably. They’d used condoms. Three of them. It had only been one night. More than likely it was just the stress of her asshole landlord uncle threatening to raise the rent on her flower shop and her apartment above it. Forever in Bloom was finally turning a healthy profit, and she had plans to use that extra cash to hire an accountant so she wouldn’t be doing the books herself.
Kahn mewled and bit Tess’s leg with his pointy little teeth.
“Ow!” She massaged the spot right above her ankle to rub the sting out. “What was that for?”
The kitten, a puffball of black and white fur, just flicked his tail and stared up at Tess as if she’d somehow disappointed him by even having to ask the question. Kahn’s teeth were no joke, and from the kneecaps down, she was starting to look like a pincushion.
Her phone buzzed as it vibrated against the counter, and she sat up straight, bite forgotten and nervous swirling in her belly remembered. If she’d been all in for the test result to come back one way or another, this experience might be different. Calmer? More hopeful? Instead, she was just a jumble of mixed-up emotions, ranging from please-let-it-be-yes to oh-my-fucking-God-no and everything in between.
Family was something she’d never really had until she met her girls Lucy, Fallon, and Gina. Her mom had seen her mostly as an inconvenience to be dropped off at various relatives’ houses whenever possible for as long as possible. Those aunts and uncles never let her forget that she was an obligation and it was only because of their Christian duty that they welcomed her into their homes—even if that welcome was more of a tired tolerance.
But a baby? That would be creating her own family. She could make sure to do it right because she’d seen firsthand how it could be done wrong.
Doubt circled upward, twisting and distorting all of that hopefulness because what if she really wasn’t meant to have a family? How many times did she have to learn that lesson? Even if she kept the baby—if there was a baby—did she really think she’d be enough as a single mom? Or would she just repeat every mistake that had been visited onto her?
Kahn took a swipe at her shin and narrowed his little eyes at her as if to say, Just look already.